Commercial airports in the former Yugoslavia processed a combined total of over 9.66 million passengers during the first five months of the year, with Belgrade and Zagreb positioning themselves within the top seventy and top 100 busiest in Europe respectively. For the first time this year, Sarajevo Airport handled more passengers than its counterpart in Ljubljana, while Rijeka handled fewer travellers than in May of last year. It is the second consecutive month that Rijeka’s figures have dipped compared to the previous year, with the airport forecast to buck the trend in 2023 compared to others in Croatia and handle fewer passengers than it did in 2022. It comes because of LOT Polish Airlines’ decision not to restore seasonal flights from four Polish cities, including Warsaw, as well as Lufthansa reducing its operations by 30% and Ryanair running 7% fewer flights, despite the introduction of a new service from Bergamo this July.
Passenger performance by airport, January - May 2023
During the January - May period, Belgrade Airport ranked 70th busiest on the continent, just behind Stuttgart, Malta and Eindhoven, but ahead of Reykjavik, Larnaca and Thessaloniki. Zagreb also made it into the top 100, positioning 98th. It was behind the likes of Cagliari, Stavanger in Norway and Hanover, but ahead of London City, Tbilisi and Pristina. Pristina itself just missed out on the top 100 and was 105th on the list, behind Santiago de Compostela, Nuremberg and Wroclaw but ahead of Treviso, Rhodes and Tallinn. The Kosovo market saw the third-fastest growth rate in Europe during the five-month period when compared to the pre-pandemic 2019.
Passenger performance by airport, May 2023
During the first five months, the Slovenian market saw the biggest decline in passenger figures in percentage terms in Europe (excluding Ukraine) when compared to the pre-pandemic era with numbers down 39.3%. On the other hand, Albania recorded the fastest growth, amounting to 102%, according to Airports Council International Europe, and was ahead of Armenia with a 57% increase. The Kosovo market registered 45.3% growth, Serbian 26.1%, Macedonian 13.3%, Montenegrin 9.2%, while the Croatian market saw its passenger figures grow 3.9% on the same period in 2019. Notably, most Western European markets are yet to recover their pre-pandemic figures with the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary all well below pre-Covid levels. Overall, London Heathrow Airport was the busiest in Europe between January and May, handling thirty million passengers, ahead of Istanbul’s main gateway, which was second with 28.9 million travellers. They were followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle, Madrid, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Barcelona, London Gatwick, Rome Fiumicino and Istanbul Sabiha Gocken.
European rank for EX-YU capitals and select regional airports, January - May 2023
Pity about Rijeka. I always thought it could be a good base for LCCs.
ReplyDeleteYes it could have been. The same as Croatia Airlines could have been the biggest and the most important carrier in the Balkans, Greece excluded. The same as ZAG could have been the gateway to SE Europe. But we have Kradeze who cares about the aviation in Croatia less than the last year's snow
DeleteOK. But why is Rijeka so different from Zadar and Split? Yes, even to the weak Pula?
Delete1. Very often closed in winter for strong bura wind - locals never got habit of using it
Delete2. Trieste, Treviso, Venice, Pula, Ljubljana, Zagreb, all with more options, very close
3. Most of the tourists from emitive markets reachable via ground transportation
4. High taxes
5. Bad management, since the day one
I think point 4 and 5 is the most important. Zadar has almost no passengers in winter and is easily accessible by car. Nevertheless, it managed to achieve mega growth. I think Rijeka has that potential too.
DeleteInteresting that BEG was ahead of both Thessaloniki and Sofia in May.
ReplyDeleteNice... good result for BEG
DeleteZadar also barely just had more passengers in May this year than in May last year. Don't know what's going on there.
ReplyDeleteIt is because Ryanair moved the resumption of a lot of its flights until later in the summer. But in general I think it will end the year ahead of 2019 and certainly ahead of 2022.
DeleteThanks
Delete... and reduced rotations....
DeleteI doubt it, it’s the most visited city in Ex-Yu. Actually it’s voted for most boring city in Europe a couple of years ago.
DeleteSplit has entered the chat
ReplyDeleteIt handled more passengers in May than the entire January-April period :) gotta love coastal airport.
DeleteI wonder whether Split or Zagreb will be the number 1 Croatian airport this year,
Delete@Anonymous10:01
DeleteZagreb by a significant margin. Zagreb is expected to handle around 4.0 million pax this year, Split around 3.2 million. Exact noumbers are hard to predict, but Zagreb could be handling anywhere between 3.,8 and 4,0 million, earlier estimates where 3.75 and 3.85 million. So far airport handled around 1.34 million passengers, in June it is very likely airport will handle above 350 000, more likely 370 000 or close to this figure.
Projections for rest of the year, although this isn't hard to guess considering the trend.
So far - 1.346 000
June - 360-370 000
July - 390-405 000
August - 410-425 000
September - 390-400 000
October - 380-390 000
November - 310-325 000
December - 300-310 000
Total: 3890 000 - 3970 000
Split is projected to handle around 3.24 to 3.3 million this year and according to Split airport's own projection in 2024 it'll handle around 3.5 million passengers.
Croatian airport expect to handle around 11.5-12million pax this year.
Zagreb - 3.75 - 3.85 million
Split - 3.2 - 3.3 million
Dubrovnik - 2.5 - 2.6 million
Zadar - 1.2 million
Pula - 550 000
Rijeka - 200 000
other airports total - 80 000~
Zagreb will lose second place to Pristina.
Delete
Delete@Anonymous16:23 Never, Zagreb is in the EU, NATO, major trading and economic center, by all accounts it is most important city in ex-Yu, welthiest and most visited by international visitors. If u're refering to airport traffic, anything is possible, Skopje might become biggest in all of ex-Yu. U just don't know, martians can land and take over as well. Anything is possible.
"by all accounts it is most important city in ex-Yu"
DeleteLOL
"Anonymous20:03
Delete"by all accounts it is most important city in ex-Yu"
LOL"
OK by most accounts.
@Anon 17:00 Are you okay? Belgrade airport is not in the EU and NATO country yet it increased the passenger gap over Zagreb airport about tenfold in the past 10-11 years. Simple math shows PRN is quickly closing passengers gap to ZAG and will overtake it this or next year. Zagreb lost all chances to become relevant aiport hub of the region and will drop down to 3rd and likely 4th spot in the next couple of years. Unless ZAG-friendly aliens take over, of course!
DeleteZagreb is not the wealthiest city ;) dream on
DeleteLet me enter the chat 😃 and say something : During ex Yugoslavia, Belgrade was the capital, the biggest city and the most important one, politics and administration - wise. For culture and sports, the two were always neck by neck. But in economy, Zagreb was the number one. After the country tragically disintegrated in blood, Zagreb had its chance to remain the number one in economy and increase the gap, with the aviation field, as a part of economy included. Unfortunately, Kradeze managed to destroy everything it touched and today Zagreb is looking at the back of Belgrade even in the overall economy part, which is even more tragic Croatia being part of the EU, and Serbia not. I don't expect people hailing Bravo Hrvatska to understand this, I am aware I will probably again be spit at, but I can't simply tell or write lies or my wishes pretending to be the truth
Delete@Anonymous08:01
DeleteZagreb is not the wealthiest city ;) dream on
Zagreb is welthiest and has biggest economy of all ex-Yu cities, that is a fact, unless you want to dispute IMF and EU Stats. Zagreb generates GDP of €24.2 billion or income per head of around €31160.
Belgrade generates around €21.8 billion and income per head of €13.650, so which aspect of this isn't clear to you?
https://podaci.dzs.hr/media/wb4ilci3/nr-2021-2-1_karta-hr.png?width=1024&height=1046 data for 2019, data for 2023 is much higher. around €31 billion or €40.300 per head of population.
DeleteMonte Carlo is wealthier than Zagreb but has no airport passengers. Topic is number of passengers.
DeleteStatistika nasa dika
DeleteSto pozelis to naslika 😃
If Zagreb is so much more developed, the wealthiest and with most tourists, how come BEG has double more passengers than ZAG? Isn't it another proof of OU being total failure?
And this shows how insignificant is the ex-yu market
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThere are many reasons why the ex-yu market can't compete with Western Europe. The main one is that fewer people live in the whole ex-yu area than in the Netherlands and Belgium, and they both only occupy an area the size of Serbia.
DeleteThe main reason is econmic standards. But AMS is also a main hub Netherlands gets 17,5 millon tourists every year. In Netherlands it''s normal that 17 year olds go with plane with there friends to Spain, Greece or Portugal.
Delete@09;08
Deletethats the most rediculous thing anyone can say. these are the numbers we have while we have poor management and only two flag carriers that also have many problems. for the entire ex-yu + bulgaria we only have 4 long haul routes.
even the national carriers of western europe cant cope independently that's why they all formed groups together. yet Air Serbia/ Croatia Airlines and Bulgaria Airlines have to manage independently.
if we had better management of our airports and infrastructure, also if we had a functional cooperative airline like Air France-KLM then we could have over 60 million passengers through the entire south Slavic nations, we could have over 10 long haul routes. and a fleet of 200 aircraft combined
so no, our market is not irrelevant. between us we have the black sea and Adriatic for summer season, mountains for winter tourism and Zagreb/ Belgrade/ Sofia/ Ljubljana for business + our diaspora. we have everything western europe does. just needs better organisation. we wouldn't even need the LCC
12:27 amazing pro Balkan comment!
Delete+1000000000
When I was saying TK and OS were two airlines which saw the biggest and the fastest growth in whole of Europe after the disintegration of Yugoslavia and death of JAT, I was severely spit 😃
Delete@pozdrav
Deleteofcourse thats what happened becuase those nations and their interests have never changed from the time of austria-hungary and ottomon mentality.
this is something we could fix if JU/OU/FB formed a joint effort like air france-KLM.
but sadly our politics gets in the way
i mean even the guys who are corrupt and steal could steal more money if we had bigger company and success but sadly they not smart enough to understand that
Agree 😃
DeleteLJU will improve its numbers this summer. I think this year won't be bad at all for them.
ReplyDelete1,3 MIO max this year
Delete9.6 million from 22 airports.
ReplyDeleteBy comparison ATH had 9,152,161 pax during the same period.
Our markets have tremendous room for improvement.
Agree! I’ve said this before. If we want to be attractive, the airport taxes have to come down to attract new airlines and we don’t have have to look far. The triangle to follow is SOF-BEG-TIA.
Deletelol
DeleteComparing Athens is just ridiculous. It's top 50 with infrastructure that is decades ahead. If there was no wars in Ex-Yu then the numbers would be significantly different for everyone.
DeleteNice to see Osijek with a bit more passengers than usual. Not huge but still an imporvement.
ReplyDeleteThat's the effect of the Munich flight.
DeleteI wonder is Kraljevo airport management trying to get new flights, or are they solely relying on JU and subsidized routes by the government?
ReplyDeleteWith JU now having Embraers, they could actually use them in KVO.
DeleteYou can't attract too many airlines if they have to fly with turboprops.
Deleteof course they are relying on PSO routes
DeleteI don't think they can do much until the runway is dealt with. Not a lot of turboprop operators willing to start flights. But I also doubt they are trying hard to attract anyone either.
DeleteAnonymous09:21
DeleteOnce JU stabilizes their fleet and stops expanding without plans, they can actually put a put a plane in both KVO (if KVO manages to get all the necessary infrastructure to become a hub) and INI and connect the airports with the rest of Europe and holiday destinations.
Why on earth would KVO need to become a "hub"???
DeleteWho says that JU expand without plan?
DeleteSo Tarom and Croatia Airlines. And maybe someone flying charters to Greece during the summer, but AirSerbia would block that.
DeleteI don't know how many times you have to be told that Air Serbia is not in a position to block anyone from the EU. If it were, Wzz Air would not be basing its 4th aircraft in Belgrade on 2 weeks. Second, who on earth is going to fly with TAROM or Croatia Airlines from Kraljevo of all places? Croatia Airlines could not even make Split-Belgrade work. Kraljevo market is small and poor, that is why Air Serbia is being paid to fly 2 routes from there and from the passenger numbers you can see there are barely any.
DeleteI just commented who has necessary equipment to land there. I know they won't start.
DeleteI think LJU is a good path now and should have a much better year than originally expected.
ReplyDeleteHope so
DeleteLJU will be around 1.5 million passengers this year
Delete1.3 max
DeleteWhat is new in ljubljana this year?
DeleteAthens, Helsinki, luxembourg, skopje? British to london in winter, increased capacity to amsterdam, increased frequency to zurich… anything else?
its not fair to exclude our austrian neighbours from the statistics :D :D
ReplyDeleteIt should be noted that SKP was closed for almost a week in the height of the January holiday season due to fog. I am sure it would have already had a million passengers by the end of May.
ReplyDeleteSkopje need to find better solutions for the fog in the winter period
Delete@09:35 I remember but it was only around 2500 pax that SKP missed out.
Delete@11.24 Jan has 200k (?) so it cant be 2.5k if it was closed for a week
DeleteIt wasn't closed for a week
DeleteI'm hoping Tivat will manage to somehow recover this year. 2022 was really bad for them.
ReplyDeleteIt will be a bit better than last year but not expecting them to reach 2019 levels in 2023.
DeleteLoss of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarus market is not easy to cover within one year. And it was an unexpected loss too.
DeleteAnd Airports of Montenegro is pushing all new airlines to start flights to Podgorica instead of Tivat. Don't know why.
Delete@10.27 ridic. claim.
DeleteNot at all
DeleteTIV and TGD needs to work more on the Polish market and try securing more flights. This is a huge country with lots of potential.
DeleteWho are these people flying to Maribor when there are no scheduled flights?
ReplyDeleteSport charters most usually.
DeleteSKP had 35% in May. not bad
ReplyDeleteSKP is doing very well this year. Plus there are several new routes and airlines. Lufthansa, Norwegian, Croatia Airlines, new Wizz routes to Ljubljana and Luxembourg...
Deletecapacity growth was 37% which means seats are being taken
DeleteI am just wondering whether are those figures accesible even for public or not?
ReplyDeleteI don't think so.
DeleteI'm really happy that we can get the data for all airports in ex-Yu each month. Appreciate it!
ReplyDelete+100
DeleteInteresting to see SJJ is ahead of LJU in May!
ReplyDeleteDid the runway closure over night have any impact on Zagreb's numbers?
ReplyDeleteIt did. ZAG underperformed in May because over 100 flights were cancelled.
DeleteGood results overall
ReplyDeleteNot really in my opinion considering we are talking about over 20 airports. The number of passengers is rather low.
DeleteBut most are seeing growth compared to 2019. So the ex-Yu airports are doing well.
Delete@9.56 boring
DeleteSo by the end of June BEG definitely had in total over 3 million passengers
ReplyDeleteDefinitely.
DeleteWell over 3 million.
DeleteProbably around 3.2 million at the end of May. Over 7 million by the end of the year.
DeleteMinistar je istakao da je na aerodromu „Nikola Tesla”, zaključno sa današnjim danom, zabeležen 3.146.171 putnik, a da se do kraja godine očekuje više od sedam miliona, što će biti istorijski rekord
DeleteVesic said on the 26.07.2023. during the meeting with Vinci
Thanks for the list!
ReplyDeleteSofia and Belgrade are very close.
ReplyDeleteHow many passengers does Sofia have in total this year?
Delete2,806,233 for Sofia
DeleteBelgrade still needs to catch up but I think they will during the summer. Sofia is stronger in the winter though.
DeleteCounting on a per month basis, BEG overtook SOF pax numbers in May (612.485 in SOF vs 648.748 in BEG). Last year, BEG only in July and August had more pax than SOF.
DeleteBEG might briefly overtake SOF in August, but SOF will overall have more pax this year. The gap will be smaller, my guess around 200.000 pax. Last year the gap was 391.924 pax.
Ljubljana again at the bottom of all capital cities in Europe.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Fraport, Ljubljana airport is special and unique and is not allowed to be compared to any single airport in Europe.
DeleteSKP will have 300k for the next 4-5 monts , realisticly its possible to finish the year to close 3 milion pax , which is pretty good recovering ...
ReplyDeleteI think SKP will reach 2.4-2,5 millon
DeleteI think it will be more than 2.5. Let's see.
DeleteAnyway SKP is doing pretty good from the Covid and the runway rehebilitation ... Will see how the year will goes ..probably close to 2.6 milion pax
DeleteSKP has already added 300k this year in comparison with last year
DeleteNice line-up on the photo.
ReplyDeleteNice line photo which ZAG should have had long ago, would be : Croatia A330, Air Canada A330, Korean B787, Emirates B777, Qatar B787, United B767.....
Deleteline-up
DeleteOur government need to be focesed on fixing the problem with the winter fog on SKP airport ... I dont know what exactly could be the solution , but that is a problem ...I am not sure if new runway could solve that issue ... Anyway SKP is doing good from the Covid 19 which giwes me hope that it is possible to achieve good numbers this year.. Also fingers crossed for new routes and middle east return 🥳
ReplyDeleteBelgrade has almost the same passenger numbers as the next two combined and keeps moving away from them. Within Ex Yu region, Belgrade passenger numbers and operations show BEG is in a league of his own.
ReplyDeleteZAG used to be compared to BEG but that's no longer a fair comparison. Results show it would be more appropriate to track and compare main indications like passenger and operations numbers of ZAG with PRN. PRN market grew by 45% and is nicely catching up to Zagreb. This will be the race to follow in 2023 and 2024.
Main competitors of Belgrade in the region are now Tirana and Sofia.
DeleteTirana is extremely hot at the moment with Wizz and Ryanair going against each other.
There is even real possibility that it will catch up with Belgrade.
this isn't a sprint, it is a marathon. Things change dramatically over time.
DeleteGood news for TIA but they are not Ex YU
DeleteZagreb fans will be shocked when they get run over by PRN.
DeleteZAG will not get run over by PRN. As Covid restrictions ended PRN has started falling back to competing with SKP again.
Delete@ Michael
DeleteAs it was discussed previously, visa lib. should change PRN numbers drastically in 2024 at least and then they will stabilize.
Sarajevo just needs a base, Ryan Air would help a ton
ReplyDeleteTrue!
DeleteI agree, with a base they'd surpass 2 million easily and probably think about additional terminal expansions
DeleteSo far BEG has little bit less pax than all croatian airports all together in period Jan-May. I predict it will be the case in whole year in like 3 years.
ReplyDeleteIn every summer Split airport has more pax then Belgrade airport .
DeleteIIn three years it will probably be the same .
Not correct at all. Split had more passengers one month in 2018. And never again. Stop making things up.
DeleteHow many total passengers for Tirana?
ReplyDeleteFigures out today for JAN-JUL 23, 3 Million.
Delete